Translator’s introduction This document was written in2013 and updated the following year. It is a comprehensive study of contemporary Chinese capitalism and of China’s development as a social-imperialist power. Its background is the rise to power of Xi Jinping who, in 2013 assumed most leadership positions in the Party, the PLA and the State, and of the corresponding downfall of Bo Xilai who had been Mayor of Dalian and then the governor of Liaoning before transferring to Chongqing as its Party Secretary. Xi Jinping stood firmly for the Deng Xiaoping line of building ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’, which was a socialist disguise for the consolidation of capitalist economic and political power in China. Because of this, the document refers to Chinese capitalism as “characteristcs” capital. Bo Xilai was the son of Bo Yibo, one of the “Eight Immortals” or veteran leaders upon whom Deng relied to change China from the socialist to the capitalist road. As one of the ‘princelings’, Bo Xilai was committed to Deng’s “reforms”, but played the part of a populist who promoted the singing of so-called “red songs” and cultivating an image as a ‘leftist’. His supporters approved of his “Chongqing model” of leadership. One Maoist group even nominated him as their general secretary, a post which he declined. His undoing came in February 2012 when Wen Lijun, deputy mayor and police chief in Chongqing, defected to the US Consulate following a demotion. Wang claimed to have information about the involvement of Bo Xilai and his wife Gu Kailai in the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood, who allegedly had close financial ties to the two. Xi seized his opportunity and had Bo stripped of all posts, arrested, found guilty of corruption, expelled from the Party and sentenced to life imprisonment. Despite this, some leftists, including some Maoists, continued to support Bo Xilai and the Chongqing model. This document has far more to say than just the Xi Jingping-BoXilai matter. It has much to offer students of Marxism-Leninism around the globe despite it being ten years since it was written. In translating this document, I have inserted some footnotes where I thought it would assist the understanding of non-Chinese readers. I have retained the formatting (bold face, red highlighted text etc) of the original. Any faults in the translation are mine. Nick G. Chairperson, Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) October 2024

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